


Stay

by ReinaWritesStuff



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Canon, D&D said "Fuck logic" and so will I, Fix-It, Gap Filler, Gen, Grief/Mourning, House Targaryen, Jon Snow mention, Jonerys implied, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Post-Canon Fix-It, Resurrected Dany, Resurrection, Soft Daenerys, fuck season 8, soft angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 04:52:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19244212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReinaWritesStuff/pseuds/ReinaWritesStuff
Summary: "The woman was older than her, faint traces of early wrinkles settled in around her gentle, violet eyes. Her long, loose hair was ever so slightly graying, and her body more mature than Dany’s. But, her face was Dany’s and Dany’s was hers. She narrowed her eyes at the woman before realization set in.'Mother?'"Following her fall, Daenerys is greeted by a long-lost face.





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to begin by stating that season 8 can eat my whole entire ass. That said, I wrote this fic of Dany finally meeting her mother and receiving the softness and love she thought she'd lost. I've written two resurrection fics; one soft, one angry. This is the soft one. 
> 
> WARNING: Not very Jon-positive (though I don't acknowledge OOC season 8 "Jon" as the actual Jon Snow but rather I call him "Jim Rain")
> 
> I'm moderating comments, so don't bother with troll comments, bruv. They're going in the trash anyway.

“Rise, my sweet.”

The voice was unfamiliar to Dany, but it was so comforting that it warmed her. It cut through the other sounds surrounding her. The sound of wind whipping by. Of loud dragon wings cracking as they flew. A sudden commotion of murmuring voices. When she finally opened her eyes, she was no longer in the crumbled ruins of the throne room. No longer lying cold in the snow. No longer looking into his face as her breaths slowed. The pain of the knife was gone, even if the pain in her still heart wasn’t.

Her eyes opened to a different place. Nowhere she could remember being or even hearing of before. The grass was a lush, unnatural green and seemed to extend further than the horizon over hills and valleys. Flowers of all colors peppered the fields and glistened in the light. The sky was bluer than any she’d ever seen. Trees sprouted around, growing fruits that she could not identify. And her head rested in a woman’s lap as her hair was gently stroked. The woman lightly hummed a song and Dany knew it was the same voice that had spoken to her before.

Confused, Dany willed her body to sit up and see the woman for herself. When she did, it was as if she was staring at a mirror. The woman was older than her, faint traces of early wrinkles settled in around her gentle, violet eyes. Her long, loose hair was ever so slightly graying, and her body more mature than Dany’s. But, her face was Dany’s and Dany’s was hers. She narrowed her eyes at the woman before realization set in.

“Mother?”

The woman smiled and nodded. Dany stared in shock and awe at the mother she never knew but always dreamed of. She was everything that Viserys had said she was and more. Even that simple smile made Dany feel like a child again. A happier child, loved by her mother. Without another thought, Dany threw her arms around Rhaella. They embraced tightly for the first time as if they’d done so all of Dany’s life, and she never wanted to let her go. _When she brought me into her arms, all my cares were gone_ , Viserys told her as a child, _Mother always had that power._ She realized how right her brother had been.

“Hello, my girl,” Rhaella whispered.

Dany could have basked in the impossibility of feeling, seeing and hearing her mother. But, it was then that true understanding set in, and Dany’s heart sank. She was with her mother. The throne room and everything she last remembered around her was gone. The dagger was gone and so was the wound she knew it had left. That meant she was certain of what had happened to her. Where she was and how any of this was possible.

“If...” Dany began with a gulp. “If I’m here with you, I’m–”

“You’re safe. That’s what you are”

Safe. Dany had forgotten what safety felt like. She thought it was Jon. She thought she’d found safety in his arms; his loving embrace. She thought as much until the moment she felt the searing pain of his blade as it plunged into her. Every bit of her wished that the moment was nothing more than a horrific nightmare. Through her last glimpses of consciousness, she’d hoped that her memories had misled her. That it wasn’t truly Jon who’d dealt a fatal act over a sweet kiss. But, Dany knew that what he’d done to her was real. There was no fooling herself anymore. The painful memory made her clutch tighter onto Rhaella as tears softly fell.

“He hurt me, mother,” she cried into her shoulder, trembling against her. “He was there and then he hurt me.”

“Shh.” She lifted Dany’s face, placing her hands on each side. “Do not cry. You’re here. _This_ moment is what matters. Think only of this.”

She wiped the tears from Dany’s eyes and something in the action took the pain away, even if only for the time being. But, it didn’t take the sting of betrayal from her.

Rhaella stood – her long white and gold jeweled gown pooling at her feet – and reached her hand out. Dany took it and held it as they walked through the fields. Each step they took left shimmers of silver beneath them. Dany placed her head on her mother’s arm.

“You’re still scared,”Rhaella said.

“I am.”

Rhaella squeezed her hand tighter and placed a kiss on the top of her head. Dany had felt love in her life, but no love compared to the feeling she had in that comfort.

“My whole life, I’ve wanted this,” she said, “Not in this way, but I wanted it.”

“As have I. When I held you, I knew even to my dying breath that you were special. My Stormborn. I so wish that I could have been there for you and for Viserys. No children should have ever endured what you both did.”

“Viserys told me so many stories of you, it felt like you were there. Like I knew everything about you already. I ached to see you and to know you for myself.”

“We’re together for now. No matter what.”

“Is it only us here?”

“Here, yes. Many, many others are elsewhere. I have seen them all.”

“There’s more?”

“So much more. This is but one small part for the two of us alone.”

In what seemed like a far off distance, Dany was almost distracted by the sounds of voices. Low voices, chanting in unison words that she couldn’t understand. The sound was suddenly incessant like an ever-rolling thunder. With each word, her body felt a strange and indescribable sensation. Both discomforting and stirring. But, she pushed it aside. Rhaella was right, after all. All that mattered was this place. She thought instead of the other faces she wanted to see.

“Rhaegar,” Dany asked, hopefully, “Elia and the children?”

“They are there as well.”

“Can I see them? I have always wanted to meet them.”

“I’m afraid not,” Rhaella answered, sympathetically.

Dany stopped walking, creased her brows and looked up at Rhaella.

“Why not?”

“Because you cannot stay here, and you cannot come with me. Not yet.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You are not done in the living world.” Rhaella held both of Dany’s hands, facing her. “What you hear overhead are the voices of powerful people working to bring you back.”

“Bring me back?”

“You’ll be back in your body, alive again shortly.”

“Why? What purpose could I have there now?”

“I do not know. But, it’s important enough that you’re returning to fulfill it.”

The chants became louder and clearer, and it was all the confirmation that was needed. Dany looked with melancholy at the lush landscape and back to her mother. She’d lost so many whom she cared about in her life and had so few remaining in the world. Sweet Missandei, her bear, Jorah, Viserion, Rhaegal, Ser Barristan. Her family. There were far more loved ones waiting for her amongst the dead than amongst the living. There was little left for her in life.

“How can I stop them? I don’t want to go back. I’m so tired. I want to stay here and go with you.”

“You will one day. But this is not that day.” She touched her hand to Dany’s cheek again. “I could not miss the chance to see my daughter up close, though, even if only for a short time. See how beautiful and brave the baby I held in my arms grew to be.”

The discomforting feeling came back, and Dany knew that it was her body waking up. More memories of her life flashed before her. Buildings falling. Running. Fire. Screams. She tried to shake them away, but each time she did, they played again. She couldn’t return to that. Didn’t want those memories back.

“I can’t go, mother. Not after what happened,” Dany pleaded.

“You can. It’s alright.”

“No, I did… things,” she replied, tearfully, “Things that frightened even myself. I didn’t… I was only…”

“That was not you. I know it wasn’t you. I know because I’ve watched you your whole life. You have a chance to make it right now.”

What if she couldn’t make it right? She’d felt herself slipping in her final days. Felt her hold on her calm and sanity fading away. _She’s becoming like her father,_ Dany would hear whisperers say. They were wrong, she would tell herself. But, with each assurance came intense, paralyzing fear and doubt. Fear that the grip of her father had finally reached her and pulled her down. Doubt that she could ever escape him now.

“Am I like him, mother?”

Dany needed no specifics. Rhaella knew well, too well, who she was asking about. Why she was asking it. With all sternness, she answered

“No. _Never_.”

“But I am his daughter–“

“As you are mine,” Rhaella said definitively. She stared into Dany’s eyes to make certain that she took her words to be true. “You are hurt. You are scared. You are angry. But, you are not him, nor will you ever be.”

Dany felt the swelling pressure as air slowly began to fill her lungs again. The lightest thud of a heartbeat grew in her chest. Her hands trembled as she felt blood return to her veins.

“You’re stronger than you even know. Not only because of your armies but because of you. Remember that. Go now, my sweet. I will greet you again when it’s time.”

Rhaella’s beautiful, loving smile was the last thing she saw clearly. Her vision of her mother, of the green, flowery fields and blue skies faded first to white then to black. Dany was lost in darkness for what felt like forever. A deep chill washed over her and all of her last memories rushed back to her. She saw the cheering armies. The falling snow. Heard her voice cry out in a rousing speech. She saw the Iron Throne in front of her. She felt Jon’s soft lips. She felt Jon’s cold dagger.

Suddenly, her eyes darted open and she gasped for air as if she’d come from underwater. As her sight adjusted, she took in her strange surroundings. Was this life? Was she still among the dead? She did not know at first. Dany was lying on a large stone altar, her bare body covered only by a sheer piece of cloth. It was cold and dark wherever she was, illuminated with a couple of candelabras and the moonlight through the windows above. But, she was certainly awake and alone. Hard as she tried, she could not remember anything she’d experienced between her death and her awakening. She only recalled the endless darkness.

_There was something there before. I was somewhere. I could swear that I was. And someone was with me. Why can I not remember it?_

Dany lifted her hands as though she were learning to use them again and felt over her cold skin. Her chest rose and fell with newly regained breaths, which quickened when she felt the fatal wound below her breast. She struggled to sit upright as she looked at the hole his knife left behind. Her fingers prodded at it but there was no feeling or sensation.

“Where am I,” she shakily whispered to herself.

“Volantis, My Queen,” someone said from behind her.

Two women emerged from the shadows, both dressed in thick cloaks. Both with matching, knowing smiles aimed at Daenerys. One woman had long dark hair and fearsomely piercing blue eyes. The other, a young woman of Yi Ti decent, followed the first, circling around the altar.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Kinvara, High Priestess of the Temple of Volantis,” the first woman said.

“You revived me.

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that?”

Dany could not recall anything but the darkness, but she couldn’t shake the urge to be back there rather than in her living body.

“A great wrong was committed, and we have now corrected it. The Lord of Light gave you life again to renew the world as you tried before.”

“I will not raze more lands,” Dany said forcefully. “I made my mistakes. I won’t repeat them.”

“No, you won’t repeat them,” the second woman answered. “You have a chance to make it right now.”

_You have a chance to make it right now._

The words brought comfort to her, though she could not remember why. She saw the briefest flash of an unfamiliar woman’s loving smile, and suddenly she was calmed. The priestesses exchanged a look between each other as if they somehow knew the effect their words had. Knew what the words meant to Dany. One woman moved to drape a robe over Dany’s shoulders while the other held her hand out to her.

“Come, My Queen,” Kinvara said, “We have much work to do.”

_You are stronger than even you know... Remember that._

The mysterious sentiment echoed in her head. Dany exhaled with renewed confidence and purpose, and took the priestess’ hand with a nod.

**Author's Note:**

> \- I don’t fucking know the specific, detailed reason as to why this Dany was brought back by the Lord of Light, and I actually don't even care. If season 8 didn’t have to explain anything then neither do I. I brought her back because I can. I’m the Lord of Light. 
> 
> \- I did explicitly want to have Rhaella remind her that she’s just as much her daughter as she is Aerys’ since the show forgot that she had two parents and only one of them was insane.
> 
> \- The endless darkness and memory loss, I added as an explanation for why Jon didn’t think that anything existed after death. I like playing with the kind of sad idea that maybe Jon did experience something wonderful after he died – seeing and speaking to Ned and Robb again perhaps – but the memory of it vanished when he was resurrected. However, he could get weird deja vu glimpses of it sometimes.
> 
> \- This Dany is remorseful for the malarkey that happened in King’s Landing. With the other resurrection fic Dany, this is not quite the case. The other one is longer, because I'm still pissed off.


End file.
